Westwood House

"Westwood House consists of a square building, from each corner of which projects a wing in the form of a parallelogram, and turreted in the style of the Chateau de Madrid, Paris, or Holland House." —T.R. NashHistory of Worcester.[1]

With its four diagonal wings, added to the original, early-17th century house at some time later in the same century,[6] the house's design was a precursor of the Butterfly plan which became popular in the 19th century.[7]

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Situated on a rising ground, the house greatly resembles a Norman chateau; it is built of brick with stone quoins and parapets. The core of the house dates from about 1600 and is square and three storeys high; the saloon occupied the first floor, and was lighted by large bay windows. Wings project in a line from the centre of each corner of the house, and communicate, by doors on each floor, with the central building. At some distance from each wing, yet opposite to them, are small square towers that were once connected by walls with the main building; but the walls have been removed, or fallen, and the towers now stand alone.[8]

The gatehouse is immediately in front of the house at some little distance in advance; the gate has a red brick lodge on each side of it with ornamental gables and pinnacles. The gate between them is ornamented with the heraldic bearings of the family, the mullet or star of five points, and below them the garbs or wheat-sheaves. These bearings are also sculptured on the parapets, the wheatsheaves forming the pilasters and the mullets the balusters. The timber-work over the gate, with its high pointed roof and small pinnacle, is very picturesque.[8]

The stables and servants' offices were a short distance in the rear of the house, and the kitchen garden covers the site of the long since demolished convent.[8]

Writing in 1891 Laura Valentine commented that the house was in the centre of a large and well-wooded park, with a lake of some size to the east, and a lovely avenues of grand old trees radiating from it. The front of the mansion commanded a view of the lake. From Windows in the library a grand view was obtained over "a most beautiful and undulating country". The lake (which occupies 60 acres (24 ha)[4]), the radiating avenues, and the ancient oaks added to its beauty. "There is, indeed, all over Worcestershire a soft beauty of landscape that is very bewitching".[1]

Although the house and large lake remain, the park is now a shadow of its former self. For example the only remaining tree-lined avenue is a straight one that leads from Droitwich to the gatehouse.[6]

After the dissolution Henry VIII granted Westwood, with its demesne lands, to Sir John Pakington.[4] The Pakington family seat in the adjacent village of Hampton Lovett, but that house was burnt down during the English Civil War so they moved to Westwood, which had been built in the reign of Elizabeth as a banqueting house. They enlarged and repaired it and laid out the park.[4][1][9]

There is a link between "Whole Duty of Man" (an influential and popular Anglican tract) and Westwood House, because while the author is unknown, the introduction was written by Henry Hammond, and this has led some to speculate that Sir John's wife, Dorothy, Lady Pakington, may have been the author.[10][11]

In the 19th century the house was the residence of Lord John Pakington, a British Conservative politician, who before he lost his Droitwich seat in the Commons in 1874 and was raised to the peerage held a number of government posts. The man who defeated him in that election was the Liberal politician and industrialist John Corbett. He built a house in the style of a Louis XIII château. Known as Chateau Impney, it stands only about a mile away from Westwood and although it was said to be built in that style to please his Franco-Irish wife, "More relevant may have been his desire to cock a snook at his political rival, Sir John Pakington of Westwood House" (Sir Nikolaus Pevsner).[12]